A sampling of provocative Bachmann statements

A sampling of memorable statements made by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who announced Wednesday she wouldn't seek a fifth term in Congress:

BACHMANN V. OBAMA: Bachmann was a little-known Minnesota congresswoman in 2008, when she said in an interview on MSNBC that she was concerned President Barack Obama "may have anti-American views." Bachmann said it was based on the president's past association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers. The remark sparked an outpouring of voter and financial support for her Democratic rival, but Bachmann held on to win a second term.

BACHMANN AND SCIENCE: Bachmann attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry during a GOP presidential debate for requiring middle-school girls in his state to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, or HPV. She then went on television to say a woman had approached her to attribute her daughter's mental retardation to the HPV vaccine called Gardasil. Doctors and immunization advocates sharply criticized Bachmann's comments as irresponsible and dangerous, and two bioethicists offered cash rewards if Bachmann could prove a link. She never responded.

BACHMANN ON FOREIGN POLICY: During a 2011 debate by GOP president hopefuls, Bachmann, a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said she would support the United States shutting down its embassy in Tehran. But there is no U.S. Embassy in Iran's capital.

BACHMANN ON HISTORY: Before declaring her presidential bid, Bachmann got off on the wrong foot in New Hampshire in March 2011 by describing the key early battleground state as the one "where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord." The first shots in the Revolutionary War were fired in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire.

BACHMANN ON HISTORY, PART 2: During another appearance in New Hampshire a few months later, Bachmann warned that the tax burden for future generations was growing and compared it to the Holocaust. "We are seeing eclipsed in front of our eyes a similar death and a similar taking away," she said.

BACHMANN AND SECURITY: Last year, Bachmann was sharply criticized by her own party after she repeated allegations that an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodhman Clinton had family ties to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Bachmann said Huma Abedin should have been disqualified from a U.S. security clearance, citing foreign media reports and an outside study. Sen. John McCain made a speech on the Senate floor to defend Abedin.